For the October Murder, Monday Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem spoke to award-winning Sydney author, Natalie Conyer. Natalie was born and grew up in Cape Town, but has lived in Sydney for many years.
She is a crime fiction tragic, so much so she did a doctorate in it. Her first novel, Present Tense aet in South Africa, won the 2020 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction. Its sequel, Shadow City, was released in September by Echo and is mostly set in Sydney.
Christine Gregory became attracted to New-Age ideas in her late teens. This largely involved visits to Bryon Bay to stay at the Arts Factory, late nights of drinking, and a full-throttle immersion into the alternative music scene of the noughties. Twenty-five years later, in an evening writing class the tutor asked students to create a scene incorporating all the five senses. She put pen to paper and like magic, the words flowed.
For the October Author Spotlight, New Zealand author Barbara Sumner spoke to Georgina Baron-Ross, about her debut novel, The Gallows Bird (Pantera Press). This novel whisks readers away to 19th-century London. Meet ‘Birdie,’ a young woman of lowly station with grand ambitions. Despite her humble beginnings, Birdie believes she is destined for finer things, driven by the legacy of her aristocratic mother. But then she becomes a convict bound for Botany Bay.
For the October Crime Stack, Echo Publishing has kindly offered 20 copies of Opal, the thrilling third installment in the bestselling DS Lucas Walker series by Patricia Wolf, the Berlin-based author who hails from Mt Isa. A small mining community. A murderer at large. And a flood that has trapped them all . . . …
Multi-award-winning author, Candice Fox, will present Sisters in Crime’s 31st Scarlet Stiletto Awards, after first discussing her life in crime with fellow award-winning author, Sarah Bailey.
Sisters in Crime Australia is proud to announce that 28 stories by 28 authors have been shortlisted for its 31st Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best crime short stories written by Australian women. This year 195 stories are vying for a record $13,400 in prize money. All authors receive a framed certificate and, if lucky, they also win one of the 16 prizes on offer. The first-prize winner also scores a spectacular trophy – a scarlet stiletto shoe with a steel stiletto heel plunging into a mount.
For the September Murder Monday, Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem spoke to Jane Sullivan, crime author, and the literary columnist for Nine Newspapers. She has been a judge for Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Awards several times. Jane is the author of three novels, Little People, The White Star, and Murder in Punch Lane, her first crime novel, plus a memoir, Storytime. Murder in Punch Lane is set in Melbourne in 1868, and inspired by real events and people.
Debut books triumphed at Sisters in Crime’s 24th Davitt Awards for best women’s crime and mystery books on Saturday night (31 August). Four of the six winning crime and mystery books were first-time forays into the genre: Monica Vuu (Sandfly, Tas) for Best Adult Novel for When One of Us Hurts (Pan Macmillan Australia); Amy …
For the August Murder Monday, Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem spoke to Liz Evans, British journalist, author, former psychotherapist, and academic with a PhD in Creative Writing. Luckily, for us, she has moved to Australia. She has been awarded two Varuna Residential Fellowships and the Katharine Susannah Prichard Fellowship, as well as an Arts Tasmania grant for an Education Residency. Her debut novel is the wonderfully titled Catherine Wheel (Ultimo Press).
Catch up with the latest crime events from around the nation. So many authors, so many books, so many festivals and so much talent – and so much reading pleasure ahead. Check out the Terror Australis Professional Development Program for Genre Writers, being held in Franklin, Tasmania from Sunday 3 to Saturday 9 November. Join internationally successful authors – New Zealand’s Vanda Symon, RMIT lecturer Angela Meyer, journalist Poppy Gee and martial arts master Alan Baxter.